Archive for jovito salonga

Salonga resigns from Sigma Rho By Tina Santos, Santiago AlcantaraInquirerLast updated 02:26am (Mla time) 09/15/2007
MANILA, Philippines – Ramon Magsaysay awardee and former Senate President Jovito Salonga has resigned as member of the Sigma Rho fraternity after some of its members were implicated in the fatal hazing of UP-Diliman student Cris Anthony Mendez.

“I hereby resign as a member of Sigma Rho, effectively immediately,” Salonga said.

In a statement sent to the Inquirer, Salonga, one of the most prominent Sigma Rhoans, said that he was resigning “because of recent events in which Sigma Rho has been involved.”

Salonga had earlier threatened to resign if it was determined that Sigma Rho members were involved in the death of Mendez.

“I joined Sigma Rho Fraternity, along with my classmate Pedro I. Yap (who later became Chief Justice) shortly after it was founded. At that time there was no hazing as a prerequisite to admission,” Salonga said.

Mendez, a 20-year-old graduating UP student, was rushed past midnight of Aug. 27 to the Veterans Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.

Quezon City police investigators found out that Mendez was a victim of hazing due to “bruises all over his body, particularly on the back of his arms and thighs.”

Further investigations proved that Mendez was being recruited into the Sigma Rho fraternity. No one from among its members has since come forward to admit responsibility for the killing.

The National Bureau of Investigation said it would no longer summon students of UP who could shed light on the investigation of the death of Mendez.

Instead, police officials and NBI agents would be the one to go to the university and get the statements of possible witnesses, said lawyer Romulo Asis, chief of the NBI Anti-Terrorism Division, which was tasked to handle the case.

Asis explained that the move was agreed upon during a meeting among the NBI, Quezon City Police and UP officials yesterday.

“UP officials were requesting if the students, particularly the possible witnesses to the case, could be interviewed at the university instead of inviting them over at the NBI, sort of giving them a “comfort zone.”

“Of course, we understand that they (UP officials) were just protecting the students, especially those who might receive threats as a result of their decision to come out in the open,” Asis said, adding that the meeting was part of the three institutions’ cooperative efforts.
Asis added that the UP administration would provide an office where student witnesses can be interviewed by authorities.

For the past two weeks, the NBI has been issuing subpoenas to several UP students and alleged members of the Sigma Rho fraternity who recruited Mendez into the fraternity.

However, not one of those subpoenaed has showed up at the bureau, Asis said. He claimed that some of them only sent letters “invoking their right to remain silent.”

Another NBI source added that the UP administration, which has launched its own probe of the case, wanted to be the first to file a case against those allegedly involved in the incident.

“They requested if they can be ahead in filing an administrative case,” the NBI source said. “I think the purpose is to come up with expulsion of the people involved.”